Avatar
by LJ58
Summary: The Fire Lord is defeated, the friends are working to restore balance to the world. Some, however, are having a harder time of finding their own balance than others. Like a deposed princess who might not survive if someone doesn't lend a hand.
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own these characters, or any rights to them, I am simply borrowing them to write a story for amusement purposes only._

**Avatar**

**By LJ58**

**Part 1: Aftermath**

The young guard virtually jumped as one of the other sentries smirked, and the others only chortled.

"What was that?"

"You get used to it," the burly, bearded man drawled. "That one is our special guest of honor."

"Yep. The nuttiest of the nutty," another sentry, a husky woman smirked, twirling a finger around her temper. "Actually thinks she's the fire lord."

The junior guard's eyes rounded. "You're kidding. The fire lord?"

The woman sniggered. "Reminds us every day."

"And night," a more willowy guard added with a crooked grin.

The guard cringed as the scream echoed again, and the others only smirked and rolled their eyes.

"Don't worry," the woman told the newbie. "You get used to it."

"How," the man asked sincerely with a shudder.

"Actually," another guard remarked. "She's not quite as bad as when she first arrived. Had to keep her in chains then. She attacked anyone and everyone if you didn't."

"It doesn't sound like she's gotten better," the young man responded as a weaker, but no less furious scream echoed down the corridors that lined the most notorious prison in the Fire Nation.

The others only laughed.

*****

Azula picked herself off the dirty floor, and stared past her ragged, dirty bangs at the door before her.

The hated, unyielding barrier that refused to submit to her authority.

Her gaze was dark, though her eyes were overly bright with misery as she stared at the offending panel. There was a time when no one would have dared lock her anywhere. Not that they could have at the time. She was an advanced firebending prodigy, and had even mastered lightning. She was the daughter of Ozai, the first great Phoenix King himself. Until her treacherous brother, and the loathsome Avatar had destroyed him. As they had destroyed her.

First Zuko had let that waterbending peasant rob her of her victory, and then that brat Aang had actually stolen her powers with his unnatural energy-bending abilities before Zuko had actually thrown her into prison as if she were a common ruffian. Rumors tormented her that her father was now dead, and Zuko had taken the throne.

Not only taken the throne, but had shamed their once glorious kingdom by yielding the war, and making peace with the weaklings and peasants that had once cowered under her father's heel. The thought was enough to fuel her seemingly endless rage once again.

Pushing herself to her feet, she ignored her torn, dirty dress better suited for a mud-digging peasant, and glared at the offending door. Her head still throbbed, her foot ached, and her nails were jagged and bloody. But that infernal door still refused to yield.

Considering that every square inch of her cell was as metal as the door, she knew she wasn't getting out anytime soon. That didn't stop her from trying.

She gave a cry of renewed outrage, and began to hammer and kick at the door.

In vain.

She slid down the door as her manic-fueled strength began to fade, again, and landed on her knees again, weeping bitterly as she clawed weakly at the door, wanting only to get out. Only to go home. Only to be…..free.

She spun away from the wall she was studying with intense scrutiny when the door suddenly opened, and she clenched her fists, wondering if this time she might have a chance to overwhelm a careless guard, and finally escape this hellish nightmare.

After all, if those witless children had been able to escape…..?

She stared in shock at the richly dressed brunette with more than familiar features.

"Mai," she blinked, ignoring the two guards that woman in royal robes gestured to step back as only she entered the cell.

Azula smiled hugely. "You came for me," she cried, and flung her arms around her, squeezing so hard that even the usually impassive warrior-woman gave a grunt of surprise before she managed to detach the manic woman's arms from her body.

"I came to see how you were doing, Azula. We are all worried about you."

"All," she asked cynically, stepping back to eye her. "What do you mean….? Who do you mean? Is Ty Lee with you? Haven't you come to….?"

She stopped, her dark eyes locking on the woman's slender, yet potentially deadly hands.

"Is that….? Are you….married," Azula asked her incredulously, staring at the distinctive stone on her left hand.

"I was married five months ago, Azula. To Fire Lord Zuko. Don't you remember?"

"Fire…..Lord?" The woman burst into shrill laughter. "_Zu-Zu_? Fire lord? He's as much a fire lord as I am the ava….."

Her face went cold and hollow as she stared at her former companion. "You married Zuko?"

"Yes, Azula. Don't you remember," she asked again. "I asked you to put aside your hatred and join us, but you…."

"You betrayed me," she hissed, and started to step forward, but she froze when the two burly guards stepped forward first. Her eyes darkened not with hate now, but fear. Mai saw it, and knew that was very unlike the young woman she had known for many years now.

"Again," Azula growled, glaring at her. "You all betrayed me," she said. "You all turned on me. For _him_," she hissed, and just then, Mai wasn't sure which 'him' she meant.

"'Zula," Mai tried again.

"Just go away," she spat. "You don't fool me. You're just looking for new ways to break me. Well, you won't. Do you hear? You _won't_. Someday, I'll get my firebending back, and I'll destroy you all. I'll take back father's throne, and….and…."

Mai sighed, and shook her head as the woman dropped to her knees to cry, her face buried in her hands.

"Wait! Where are you going," the fallen princess demanded shrilly as looked up when Mai turned to leave.

She didn't answer as she stepped outside the cell, and let the guards close the door even as she glanced back to see a stricken princess belatedly rush toward the closing door. "No," she screeched, "Come back!" On the other side of the door, Azula stared at the door as it slammed behind Mai, and she felt the knot in her chest rise to her throat as her former comrade disappeared.

"No," she screamed, and flung herself at the door, pounding at it in vain. "Mai, come back! Don't go! Don't leave me here! You have to help me!"

Mai glanced back as the shrill, echoing screams followed her down the corridor as she walked away. Her uncle, waiting in the corridor all along, gave her a grim expression as he escorted her back to the gondola waiting on her, and her escort.

"She is getting worse every day. I don't know what Fire Lord Zuko intends for her, but I thought it best I let you know that the girl is not getting any better. If anything, I fear she will soon succumb to complete madness here."

"I will speak with my husband," Mai told him as she paused on the landing that led to the gondola where her escort, four of the Kyoshi warriors, including Ty Lee waited on her, the former looking more than a little sad. "Until then, do what you can for her," she asked him quietly.

"Of course," the old, bearded man nodded, knowing well enough that that warden was as political an office as admiral even in the new peace that seemed to have swept their nation. He might have kept his office in the new administration, but it was a close thing after his abuse of the prince. And likely only due to his niece wedding that very prince. A surprisingly forgiving prince, which he was more than grateful for just then.

*****

Azula sat up to find she was no longer alone.

"You," she hissed, scrambling up to back into the corner of her cell, her dark eyes wide as she stared at the newcomer. "What do you want? Did you come to gloat? Or are you going to finish me off as you did my father?"

"Your father is still alive, Lady Azula," the bald teen with the airbending tattoos covering most of his body told her quietly as he continued to sit cross-legged on the floor near her worn, dirty bedding.

Aang didn't move as Azula slowly rose to her feet, back still pressed into one corner of her cell. "So, you _are_ here to gloat," she said with false blandness, her sharp eyes locked on him as she waited for any move. Any hint of a move.

"Please, sit," he gestured to the floor before him. "I really would just like to speak with you. That is all. Just a simple conversation."

She licked dry, cracked lips, and glanced around the increasingly small room.

"Well, I suspect it's going to be a short conversation, since I doubt we have much to say to each other," she quipped irritably.

Aang studied the woman that pressed herself against the wall, eyes looking more than a little wild, and sighed.

He had seen animals look that way in some of the zoos he had visited. Still, it was better than the other look he had seen in such captives, human or feral. It told him he wasn't too late, which was what Fire Lord Zuko had wondered when he had sent him here after hearing some of the stories from the prison of late.

"Well? What's on your mind, Avatar," she demanded curtly. "If you're not going to gloat, what do you want? You already have my powers. Have you come for my _life_? Tell me, damn you. Say something!"

He didn't even jump when she pounded both raw, bruised fists on the wall behind her. She was surprised that he still didn't react. She was even more surprised that guards didn't fling open the door to shout, or even beat her.

"I wanted to see if I could help you," the lean, young boy who had grown up over the past two years since he had been found told her.

"Help me? Help…..me," she laughed shrilly.

"Yes, Lady Azula. Help you," he said, and slowly, but gracefully rose to his feet.

She tensed again, eyes locked on him as he stood before her. She was still taller, but he had grown, closing that gap. Not that it mattered. He was truly the avatar now. He had command of all four elements, and more. There likely wasn't anyone in all the nations that could now stand up to this…..child.

She swallowed hard.

"H-How," she choked out quietly, that hated knot rising in her throat again as she ruthlessly wiped a brimming tear from her left eye with a grimy fist. "How could you help me now?"

He smiled at her. "By being your friend. And, if you are willing, taking you out of here," he suggested quietly.

"Out….. Out….? You'd let me go," she smiled weakly, hope something she was not yet ready to grasp after more than seven months in the tiny cell that had redefined her rapidly shrinking world.

"No."

The wordless cry tore at the young avatar as she dropped to her knees. "I knew it! I _knew_ it. You just came to torment…..!"

"No," he said, and stepped forward to take both her hands she had fisted to pound into her own temples. "No, I'm not just letting you go. But I am taking you out of here. Now, will you trust me?"

She stared up at him, frowning. "I…..I don't understand," she complained, trying to sound strong, and failing miserably.

"You are still a prisoner of war, Lady Azula. You still have a sentence to serve. But your brother, Fire Lord Zuko, is not needlessly cruel. He understands you cannot survive in here, and doesn't want you to unduly suffer."

She did scowl now. "He…..doesn't?" She frowned again, darker than ever. "Why not?"

"Because, you are still his sister," he reminded her. "Because of that, he put you in my care. And he is allowing me to take you to another prison where you might not only learn your lesson, but…..heal, as well."

"Another….prison? Which one? Zander's Pit?"

"No," he shook his head.

"Then…. Dragon's Nest?"

"No."

She frowned. "Then…..where?"

"Sky Island."

"That's……"

"My home," he nodded. "And the only way in or out of the temple is by air. You'll be a prisoner, _and_ a guest. It is our hope you will find peace there, and in time….heal."

She stared up at him. "You'd….trust me…..in your home?"

"Can't I trust you?"

"I….." She frowned darkly, and looked away. "I don't know," she muttered. "You said…. You claimed my father is still alive?"

"He is. He's in prison, too, but he is alive."

She frowned again.

"Are you going to let him out?"

"That is up to Fire Lord Zuko."

Azula's lips worked, then compressed tightly, and then worked mutely again.

"In the end, it is your choice," Aang told her. "I will not make you follow me. I will let you choose. Stay here, or….."

"_No_! No, I…..I will…..go with you," she said, looking pale and shaken as she stared not at him, but at the door. "I…. I'll behave."

She sniffed, then grimaced, and stiffened her back. "I promise to….try. I…. Just don't leave me here," she now rasped, staring not at him, but at the now open door.

"If you are really willing to follow me, then I won't leave you," he said, and stepped back, still holding to her fists as he tugged her easily to her feet with surprisingly gentle strength. She stared uneasily at the guards who did not block her way as he turned to lead her to the door, and glanced warily at them as she walked out of the cell for the first time in months at the side of the Avatar.

"You sure you want to take a chance with this one," one guard asked him curtly. "You ask me…."

"I'm sure," Aang cut him off. "After all, how can anyone earn a second chance if we don't give them the opportunity to try," he told the gaunt man.

The sentry gave him a cynical look, but for once Azula said nothing as she stayed close to the young teen's side as he walked down the catwalk that led to the exit, and the world outside. She felt the urge to bolt, wanting only to be away, but conscious of the many guards still watching her every move, she stayed close beside the eerily composed Avatar whom she had once chased halfway around the world, and almost killed on more than one occasion.

"If I….prove myself? Do I…..get to go home," Azula asked as they stepped outside, and almost wept at the first breath of warm, humid air that rose from the boiling lake that surrounded Boiling Rock.

"That's up to your brother," he told her. "But so long as you are proving yourself, you will remain on Sky Island."

"Oh."

Then she realized they were headed for the courtyard. They were not headed for the gangplank that led to the gondolas.

"Aren't we leaving," she asked, looking more than a little worried.

The bald teen smiled as he jumped a railing, and landed twenty feet below at one end of the courtyard where a massive, ivory-furred anachronism rested. The huge sky bison rose to all six feet, and eyed her, giving a curt growl, and she felt herself cringe back on the stairs as the large eyes narrowed at the sight of her.

"Relax, buddy," the Avatar fearlessly pet the massive beast as if it were a mere pet. "She's not going to hurt you. She's going to come stay with us for a while."

Appa glared heatedly at her, and snorted, and she gasped as she felt the heated mucus coating her as she stared down at herself in horror.

"Sorry. Appa's had some rough times himself, I'm guessing you know," Aang told her as he made a curt, waving gesture, and a blast of hot air simultaneously dried and cleaned her. At least, cleaned her of most of the slimy mucus coating her.

She stared at the huge bison, and eyed him uneasily. "We're not actually going on…..?"

"Appa? Sure," he smiled. "Don't worry. You'll be fine," he told her, and gestured for her to climb up to the saddle that she did not know had only recently been restored for her to use. Aang had not needed it himself, and had let it go neglected for the past few months as he went about his own duties in helping bring the world back to a harmonious balance. Something far more difficult than just defeating the Fire Lord, since some hatreds died slow, if at all after a hundred years of war.

She swallowed hard, looking back at the guards as she descended the last few steps, and approached the massive sky bison as one of the guards still behind her snickered. "Lost your guts, princess," he taunted her.

Clenching her jaw, she stepped forward to stand beside the smiling Avatar, and looked up at the scowling animal.

"Look, I'm sorry. I….made some mistakes, and….things didn't work out. Could we…..try again?"

The bison eyed her, and then a huge, pink tongue covered her like a blanket.

"Uuuhhhhh, yuuuuuccck," she moaned as she found herself bathed in hot saliva as several of the guards sniggered at her.

"Don't worry. Appa's just saying he forgives you. Now, climb on up, and we'll get going. I have one stop to make, and then we'll head for Sky Island."

She climbed up to the saddle, and knelt near the front even as he leapt gracefully astride Appa's head, shouting, "Yip, yip," before he even sat down.

Aang smiled faintly as she screamed the moment Appa left the ground, and he glanced back to see her clinging tightly to the front of the saddle as they soared out over the boiling lake that gave the prison its feared appellation. The fallen princess didn't look so bold or frightening just then, and she wasn't even looking at all as her eyes were very tightly closed.

"It's not that bad, lady," he addressed her formally as ever as they left the volcanic cone behind, and rose over the sea as Appa continued to climb higher into the sky, leaving the heat of the volcanically heated sea behind. "Open your eyes. The view is better from up here."

He didn't laugh when she only shook her head vehemently, still clinging to the saddle without opening her eyes. Aang, long used to flying with Appa, sat on his knees facing her atop the bison's huge, shaggy head, but didn't laugh. She wasn't the first to be fearful of flying at first.

"Don't worry, Lady Azula," he told her kindly, "I'm not going to let you fall. Neither will Appa."

She peeked out of one eye. "Why are you being so nice to me," she almost complained in the same curt tone he recalled as more natural to the once pampered warrior-princess.

Aang smiled. "I really am here to help you, lady. It's what I do."

"Right. Avatar Aang, the victorious avatar, and compassionate champion of the people," she grumbled.

"Exactly," he told her with a wide smile, settling back atop Appa's head, not bothering to take the reins attached to Appa's horns for expediency's sake at the moment.

She had a mental image of him falling off to plummet to his death, but then remembered he was the last Airbender. Falling to him would be a game. If not an impossibility. That image, however, was not so much born of hope just then, as fear. If he left her, she feared what might happen to her. Because she had no doubt she would never be able to control this beast as his friends had done.

She swallowed hard, and risked looking out from the bald head out at the sky beyond. It was a clear, bright day, and she could see the ocean stretching out before them like a blue meadow. Or a sheet of smooth glass. She swallowed hard again, and reminded herself that she had flown before now, and had not been afraid.

But this wild animal was no airship, and it wasn't under her control.

If something happened…..

"See," Aang gestured with both hands as they flew over the glassy ocean. "Nothing to worry about. Just relax, lady, and enjoy the flight."

"Uh, Avatar…..I….. That is….. You….."

He looked back at her again, still smiling, and told her, "If you have something you want to talk about, Lady Azula, feel free to say it. As Katara is always saying, you cannot clear the air if you are choking on your own…."

He stopped and frowned. "No, that's Toph. I think. Anyway, if you want to say something, just spit it out," he told her. "And I'm pretty sure that's Sokka's advice."

"It would be," she murmured more to herself than not as Aang only grinned, having met that.....young man.

"It does sound like him, doesn't it," he agreed without offense.

"Well," she sighed after a moment as he turned to sit looking her way again. "I was just wondering…. Why do you keep calling me…..lady?"

She gasped when he suddenly leapt up high into the air, and somersaulted to land in the saddle behind her.

"Don't do that," she gasped, staring back at him as she still clung to the saddle. "What if you had missed? What if you had fallen? What if you….?"

"Lady, relax. Even if I jumped, Appa wouldn't let me fall. Any more than he would let you fall," he smiled as he settled cross-legged beside her, throwing out both arms as he told her. "See. Steady, and sturdy. You aren't going anywhere. I promise. Besides, I am an airbender. Remember," he smiled.

She only stared at him, but did not relax her grip on the saddle.

"As to your title, well, you are still Fire Lord Zuko's sister. You may have lost your title, and been imprisoned, but you weren't banished. And you remain his sister, and a lady by birthright. One, I feel, that still deserves respect. After all, whatever happens to you, you are still a lady. Right?"

She stared at him. "You're…. You sound pretty smart for a kid," she muttered bleakly, clearly at a loss for anything else to say just then.

"Well, I do have a _lot_ of other lives to draw on for wisdom and guidance," he told her with a crooked grin, trying to lighten her mood.

"Right," she murmured as she looked around again, relaxing only slightly.

"Anything else worrying you," he asked as he stood up, making her look up at him fretfully again.

Azula just stared at him without saying anything at first.

"I just find it hard to believe that you, or Zuko would go to all this trouble to help…..me," she choked.

"Believe it or not, there are still people that care for you."

"I'm just surprised they didn't just execute me after…. After," she said quietly as she looked back over the ocean.

"I won't lie to you," he told her quietly as he sat on the edge of the saddle near where she clung. "There were a lot of people pressuring Lord Zuko to do just that. Some of them were even Fire Nation."

She said nothing to that.

She had heard far too many accusations, and still remmbered the sneering taunts from those she once deemed beneath her since they had dragged her to prison after that peas…. After that waterbender had beaten her.

"A lot of people were focused on vengeance, but I hope I've already proven I didn't come for that."

"I wondered why you didn't just kill us. Father and I, I mean," she murmured, finally starting to relax enough to look down a little.

"I was taught to respect life, and I do. You can't heal anyone, let alone the world, if you just go around killing and hammering everyone into submission. That only breeds more hatred. More violence. It doesn't solve anything. It….."

He sighed, and shook his head as she only stared blankly at him. "I'm sorry. You're probably tired, and don't care about my beliefs just now. Don't worry. We're almost there."

"Where?"

"I thought we would stop at a little village I know on the coast. You can clean up, get a hot meal, and we'll be meeting a friend of mine there. Tomorrow morning we'll start out fresh."

"I see," she murmured.

"Trust me, Lady Azula," he smiled, putting a light hand on her shoulder. "I'm here to help you."

"Why? Why would you help me?"

"It's what I do," he told her not for the first time. "And feel free to call me Aang," he smiled. "It is my name."

She could say nothing to that.

*****

"Aang," a gruff, familiar tone shouted as Appa landed just outside the town on the outskirts of the Fire Nation. "It's about time."

Azula shuddered. The last time she had come this way, she had flown over this small fishing village, ignoring it completely. As to that voice….

"Hey, Toph. I take it from your letter that your parents still haven't come to terms with your abilities," he asked as he jumped down from the bison even before his paws hit the ground.

Azula shuddered as the big animal landed lightly enough, but still shook every bone in her body doing it. How had people traveled on this thing?

"I'm back, aren't I," the younger woman growled, still looking as disheveled and disreputable as Azula recalled. She was wearing her thick hair in a simple ponytail now, though, rather than the silly, childish bobs. It made her look…..slightly more mature. She shuddered to think what she looked like after months in that dreary metal box.

"Come on down, Lady Azula," Aang called. "We'll find an inn, and let you get cleaned up. Then we'll have a hot meal."

"So, you did bring her," Toph drawled, uncannily fixing her blank gaze on the deposed princess the moment she slipped to the ground from atop Appa.

"Yep," Aang smiled his usual smile. "Cheer up, Toph. Now you'll have someone else to annoy since Katara went back home this season to help Master Paku set up the new trading routes."

"So, where's Sokka? I thought for sure he would have gone back with his father the way he worshipped him."

"He and Suki are on their honeymoon," Aang smiled at Toph. "And then I think he intends to help teach her the Kyoshi way to the women of his tribe."

"Wow, that's almost…..intelligent of him."

"Well, there are more women than men in the southern water tribes just now," he reminded her. "Oh, right. Appa," he said as he heard a curt snort. "We'll be back in the morning, buddy. You go find something to eat, buddy. Lakii's farm is just over that way, and he promised to have you some fresh hay waiting. All right?"

The big animal growled, but seemed to understand him as Azula watched the animal fly away as Aang and the earthbending prodigy started into town with more than a few people staring at them. And at her. She suddenly felt more than a little uneasy as she realized not all those stares were friendly. She rushed after the pair, realizing he had not been waiting, but giving her the chance to follow.

Was this a test of some kind, Azula wondered. Did he give her this freedom just to see if she might try running?

Then she considered what she had lost, and realized that even if he turned his back on her, there was no place for her to run. She was hated and despised by virtually the entire world. In the end, even her own friends and family had turned their back on her. She literally had no place else to go.

Her mood, just starting to lift during the flight, sank heavily as she shadowed Aang into a very upscale inn.

"Toph Bei Fong," the pony-tailed bender informed the clerk, putting a familiar card on the desk. "And company," she added as Azula found it astonishing that this girl was supposedly from one of the richest families in the Earth Kingdom, and yet favored running around in dirty rags with the Avatar.

Then again, rumors claimed she was also the world's only metalbender. An art she supposedly created herself.

"We'd like a hot bath for our friend," Aang said as the clerk eyed him, his eyes rounding as he realized who Toph's company was only then.

"Of course. I'll have a maid bring a hot bath to your room at once, Miss Bei Fong," the man smiled at her.

"Me? I'm fine," Toph snorted. "We're talking about her," she jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Azula, who blushed at being singled out just then. Especially when the clerk's eyes narrowed on her, and he noted her ragged prison uniform, and likely guessed who she was all too easily.

"We could all use baths," Aang put in to ease the tension, and smiled at the clerk. "And we'd appreciate your discretion."

"Naturally, Avatar," he nodded, smiling hugely at the young teen, proving he knew him, too.

Of course, in her own travels, it seemed everyone knew the Avatar. And they all risked their lives to help him. Very few would turn on him even it meant losing everything. Her own friends had turned on her in his favor in the end. True, Mei was trying to help Zuko, and Ty Lee was protecting her friend, but in the end, it was always about the Avatar, and his friends.

She wondered what it was about him, because she still didn't see anything special about him. All right, he had the power of the four elements in his hands. He could neutralize your bending now. He seemed more powerful than any Avatar she had ever heard of in the histories. But what was it about the half grown boy that made people…..like him?

"This way, your highness," Toph drawled when she took a key from the clerk who offered a guide for her. Her answering snort was eloquent.

"You don't have to call me that," Azula told her quietly as she noted more than a few looks her way at Toph's careless quip.

"I know. I just like rubbing people's faces in the dirt," she drawled. "It's what I do."

She stared at the back of the girl's head as Aang groaned, "Toph, behave."

"Sure, Twinkle-toes," she told him with a laugh, then added, "Like that'll ever happen."

She frowned. Surely the Avatar wouldn't put up with that kind of indignity?

"It's nice to see you haven't changed, Toph. Still, did you even try to make peace with your family?"

"Of course I did," the girl sputtered as she unerringly stopped before her own room. "I sat down and told them everything that happened. I even shared my feelings with them. Then they stuck me in a room with metal doors and bars, and refused to let me even go outside. They didn't even apologize for sending bounty hunters after me," she hugged.

"Oh," Aang grimaced. "I don't suppose I have to guess what happened next?"

"Well, I did give them time to accept me, but they just didn't listen. So.....they are going to be spending a lot of money rebuilding that wing of the house. But, honestly, they didn't even listen when I told them I had created and mastered metalbending."

"Think you can handle rooming with Lady Azula for the night," he asked.

"Sure. I put up with Katara for all that time, didn't I? After that whiny brat, anyone else should be easy."

Aang only laughed as he opened his own door even as several maids appeared to start bringing hot water to their tubs already in the rooms that were obviously the better rooms in the inn. Bei Fong money did have its advantages now that they could travel openly. Or maybe it was the Avatar's reputation.

"You first, Azula," Toph gestured to the tub the maids were filling after one pulled it out of a water closet. She dropped back on one of the beds in the room, sighing with pleasure, utterly heedless of the sight she made when dusk settled around her.

"Listen," she said as the maids left, and Azula eyed the steaming water with both trepidation and anticipation. She would love a bath. She just wasn't sure how one went about tending one's self. Until this year, she had always had an army of servants waiting to do anything for her. In fact, everything.

"Yeah," the blind girl drawled, pointedly ignoring her as she 'stared' at the ceiling.

"I….I would like to ask you…..a question."

"Well, spit it out," Toph responded. "I'm not going anywhere. Yet."

"You're blind….."

"No," Toph exclaimed, sitting up to gape at her. "Really? I wondered why I couldn't see!"

"Ugh," Azula groaned. "I'm not doing this right. Am I? I mean, I've never consorted with…. That is, I don't know….."

"Will you get to the point, your highness. I doubt those girls are going to want to carry more water here because you sit around babbling until it cooled."

"," she blurted out so fast her words slurred.

"Huh?"

"Your….hair. I mean, I've never…. Well, mine is…."

"Hmmmm. Not that I can see, but it's a mess, isn't it?" She glanced at a mirror and cringed at the sight before her. No wonder people had gaped. "It's past dreadful," she admitted.

"Never brushed your own hair?"

"Of course not," she sputtered. "Well, I tried. Once. It didn't go well."

"Let me tell you. It's kind of fun. You'd think you would have learned something after all this time. Okay, in the tub, and I'll show you how I do mine."

"You want me to undress? In front of you," Azula frowned.

Toph stood up, her expression eloquent even without her eyes.

"Oh. Right. I'm…..sorry."

"Wow, I'll bet that hurt," Toph remarked.

"You have no idea," Azula told her wryly as she began pulling off the prison uniform, and found she didn't mind jerking off the fetid rag after all.

To her chagrin, Toph laughed at her. "Get over yourself. Trust me, all pride gets you is a stiff neck, and a sore back. Learn to relax, and don't take yourself so seriously."

"And that fixes my hair how," she asked.

"Oh, that's not hair advice. That's life advice."

"I see," she murmured.

"Let's _see_," Toph snickered. Which made Azula cringe. Then the girl came over, and murmured to herself as she ran her fingers over Azula's scalp. "Wow, you are a mess," she blurted as her calloused fingers tugged and snagged at her tangled mane.

"I'm not very good with…..these kinds of things."

"C'mon," Toph huffed. "Anyone can brush hair."

"Well, I figured that out. It's….afterward that I….."

"Let's just wash it out, trim it a little, and then we'll figure out something simple for you."

"That would be….much appreciated," Azula grit out.

"Ooohhh, two complements in a row. "Better watch it, your highness. I might start thinking you're an imposter," Toph exclaimed before shoving her head under the water. "Now wash. I'll get something to trim your hair."

"But….you're _blind_!"

"You keep saying that like I haven't figured that out yet," Toph teased. She didn't go for a knife, or even scissors as Azula half expected. Instead, she found two stones from the window garden box, and they danced between her calloused, yet dexterous fingers like the lightening once flowed from her own.

She watched the stones end up flatter, and sharper, and then they were lain on a bureau as Toph found a brush in her own small pack she had dropped near the bed, and started tugging at her head after she had tried to wash her hair.

"Wow, you don't even wash it very well, do you," she said even though she couldn't possibly see.

Azula found herself feeling more than a little ashamed just then, which was saying something since there was a time not that long ago when the girl's tongue would have gotten her banished, or worse. Instead, she just dropped her head.

"Let me help," she said after finally brushing out the last of her hair that proved to be ragged and uneven after her attempt at taming it all those long months ago before Zuko had surprised her by showing up to steal her crown.

She gasped as she was shoved under the water again even before those morose thoughts could lead her back into bleaker memories, and then strong fingers kneaded her scalp like bread it seemed as the blind girl soaped, washed, and rinsed her head like a peasant might scrub a child.

Then she just stared as her head was brushed out again, and then the two flattened stones were scooped up, and the earthbender's fingers fairly danced around her head as her hair was trimmed to just brush her shoulders, leaving short bangs at her brow. She then produced a mirror for her to examine herself.

"You cut it all off."

"You're not bald, are you," Toph snorted. "I just figured that for you, for now, this was the best style. Easy to manage, and easier to keep clean. You can learn to do more as it grows back out, because, I can tell you, no one is going to serve you, princess," Toph informed her. "Not where we're going."

"I don't expect it," she replied quietly, staring at her new reflection, and finding that at least she looked almost….human again. "And…..thank you, Toph. I may call you that?"

"It is my name," she snorted indifferently, and flung the stones away, Azula seeing that they landed unerringly in the middle of the window box where they had been found.

"Now, wash up. I'm hungry, and I know Aang. He'll wait all night on us without batting an eye if we wait on him."

"I….don't have any other clothes," she suddenly remembered.

"Oh, shoot. Well, I can fix that."

She walked to the door, yelled down the hall in a most unladylike fashion, "Hey, clerk-guy. My friend needs some new clothes. Chop-chop!"

Azula found herself blushing furiously as Toph just padded back to her bed, and dropped back down on it as she had before helping her. "See? That wasn't hard."

"You're a very strange girl," Azula murmured as she finished washing, finding it a curiously enjoyable experience in spite of the fact she didn't have five maids tending her bath as was once normal. Just then, the still warm water was a more than pleasant change to her own filth.

"Says you," she snorted back.

Azula wisely did not respond to that one.

*****

Azula felt almost normal when she stepped out of the room wearing traditional skirt and halter, with her hair crowned by a red ribbon like a bandana. Toph's idea, for reasons that escaped her. Even the new sandals fit surprisingly well, and seemed quite comfortable, too. It was obviously peasant gear, but she felt much better than she had in months.

She even found herself smiling faintly at her reflection before Toph dragged her out to eat after washing only her face and hands, and shaking out her head before declaring herself 'decent.'

Aang joined them the moment Toph knocked at his door, loudly calling, "You coming, or what?"

She was obviously not a bashful creature for a blind girl.

Aang and Toph led her to a table, and she took a seat, letting them order first, then copied Toph's order. She knew what she liked, but she had no money. Toph had noticed her unease, and told her, "Don't worry. I've got the bill this time."

Still, even she wasn't ready to eat just fruit and salads as the Avatar apparently did. After months of thin, tasteless gruel, she wanted some real food.

She tried not to notice that everyone was staring at her again, but Aang didn't seem to notice anything as he ate quietly, and Toph all but gulped her meal down like a starving refugee. Then ordered more. Hungry as she felt, she barely managed to get the delicious fish and rice down, and didn't feel like sharing the dessert Toph now topped her meal off with despite how rich it looked.

Toph finally finished, leaning back to belch loudly as she patted her stomach. "My compliments to the chief," she declared loudly. "That was _very_ good."

"It was, wasn't it," Aang asked as he pushed his own plate aside after swallowing the last honeyed orange.

"How would you know. You're still eating twigs and berries, baldy," she accused him.

Aang still took no offense, and only laughed at her. "I'll just let you have my share," he told her. "Well, do you two want to see the town, or are you ready for bed," he asked, noting the sun was starting to set.

"I think I'll just go lay down," Azula told them, still uncomfortable with the eyes on her. "I'm… still pretty tired."

"Suit yourself. I'm going for a walk," Toph told her. "Gotta be some excitement left somewhere. Don't wait up."

*****

"Hey," Toph's strong hands shook her when she woke screaming.

Her eyes locked on the Avatar's friend, but for a moment she didn't see her. She saw her tormentors. Then she focused on the dimly lit room illuminated only by the moon hanging low in the sky beyond the window, and memory filled in to remind her where she was now.

Not in a metal box.

Not slowly going insane.

Well, not in a box.

"You have those nightmares often," Toph asked with surprising kindness as she sat beside her on her bed.

Azula pulled away to sit up, reaching blindly for a pitcher of water she knew was there somewhere. Toph's hand found it first, and poured her a cup of fresh water.

"Thank…. Thank you. Again."

"Sounds pretty bad," Toph remarked. "Your dreams."

She said nothing at first, then finally nodded. "They are."

"Because of the prison?"

"Because….. Because of everything," she told her.

"Bummer."

She wasn't sure how to take that.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Keep your friends even when you insult and snub them? You mock them. You demean them. You…. You act…."

Toph snorted. "They understand me because we are friends. We went through a lot that first year together. It brought us closer together. We understand one another, and we let each other be….well, ourselves. Because, your highness, this is me. My folks don't get that. My friends do."

"My friends betrayed me," she said quietly.

"Yeah. I heard."

"My own mother turned her back on me."

"Mine would rather have me locked away forever in secrecy rather than admit what I can do," Toph informed her. "What I have done."

"Do you know why Zuko….? Fire Lord Zuko freed me?"

"Not a clue. That's Twinkle-toes' department," she told her, as Azula set her cup aside after finishing it.

"You going to be okay now," she asked after the moody princess sat quietly for a moment just staring into the darkness.

"Yes. I should be….fine," she said, but made no move to lay down.

"Goodnight, princess," Toph grunted, and went to drop back into her own bed. Then grumbled about it being too soft as she hammered her pillow.

That, Azula new, was never one of her own complaints. The young earthbender was definitely….odd.

Laying back, she stared at the dark ceiling, and tried to reorder her thoughts. Life was change, her old masters had always taught. But this was taking that adage to the extreme. Never would she have thought that her father would fail, she would end up stripped of her powers, and in the care of the Avatar and his peculiar friends. If this was change, what else would she be facing? It staggered the imagination. Unfortunately, hers was beyond bleak just then.

She spent most of the remaining night staring fearfully into the night, afraid to go back to sleep. Afraid she would wake up in that cage again.

_To Be Continued……._

_**AN: **This popped out on a whim, and I am not sure what direction I am going, or if it will continue very much. Just wanted to get the bunny out of the garden so I could get back to my other unfinished work before continuing onward._


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own these characters, or any rights to them, I am simply borrowing them to write a story for amusement purposes only_.

**Avatar**

**By LJ58**

**Part 2: Second Chances**

Azula tried very hard not to notice how Toph seemed to be far more relaxed atop Appa than herself as they flew high over the world beneath them without care.

Well, she and Aang didn't seem to care.

Azula was very, very concerned about more than a few things. Gravity being chief among the list.

"…….and then he actually told me girls didn't belong in the arena. That I could get hurt," Toph was laughing at her own story. "Can you believe that?"

"Uh, yes. Yes, I can," she admitted, thinking of some of her own traditional teachers that felt the only reason she was even learning firebending had been because of her father's status. After all, they could not imagine a woman ever matching them, or any man.

She recalled that one of those men had been one of the very first she punished once her power began to manifest. And when her political power grew as a consequence of her value to……

She frowned at that thought. Her father Ozai had cared more about her than just her usefulness. He understood her. He accepted her. He encouraged her. He had never just considered her a monster. Or a….tool?

Didn't he?

"You okay," Toph interrupted her thoughts.

"Uh. Oh. Yes. I'm….fine."

"Uh-huh. That's why you look greener than Aang's breakfast, and your knuckles are white."

"I thought you couldn't see….."

"I can feel. And I can hear. You're coiled tighter than Sokka the day before his wedding, and I can hear your knuckles cracking. Relax, Zula," she called her now. "We won't let you fall."

She looked over at Aang, but the Avatar seemed to be relaxed, and staring out ahead of him without looking back just now.

"I…..I know that, but….."

"Don't like flying? Took me forever to get used to it, too."

"How long did it take you," she asked the younger girl a little uneasily.

"I'll let you know."

"When?"

"When I get used to it," Toph snorted.

She stared at the younger girl, and shook her head. "But you don't act scared…."

"Because I know Appa and Aang won't let anything happen to me. That doesn't mean I still don't prefer having my feet on solid ground."

"Oh."

"Besides, weren't you the one that used to fly around in that warship of yours? I thought you'd be used to this by now."

"Flying in a warship is different from….." She paused and looked out over the saddle at the hard ground so far below. "This," she choked, feeling ever more nauseous after daring to look down again.

"I get it. My advice? Don't look down."

Azula sighed, and dropped her head. "Thanks," she grumbled.

Toph only sniggered. "Any time, your highness," she said, and stretched out, and rested her head on her joined hands as she 'stared' up at the sky. "Besides, this still beats walking. Even I get tired of that," she admitted. "And I like the ground."

Azula found she had no reply for that kind of logic.

*****

Azula wasn't sure when they left the continent behind, but the smell of the ocean was thick in the air when she woke up, and realized all she could see was water. She quickly looked away from the sight of the blue expanse that stretched out all around them in every direction. It was worse than seeing the hard ground to her mind, since even if she survived a fall now, she could still drown. Not what someone hoping to live beyond the moment would care to ponder.

"Hey, you're up. We have water and food in those saddlebags if you want," Aang told her as he paced Appa on his glider just then. "You might want to get what you want before Toph wakes up. She's not one for sharing when she's hungry."

"Oh."

"I should warn you," the young man grinned as he banked out, then back. "She's always hungry."

"That's because I'm a growing girl, twinkle toes," the girl in question growled as she sat up just then, proving she was awake, too. "And don't think I don't remember who spent two nights groaning on Katara's shoulder because they gorged on those honeyed pastries that time."

Aang only laughed. "As I recall, I only got to them because you were busy gorging on the meat pies."

Toph sighed as she reached for the saddlebag in question. "Suki sure did put on a spread, didn't she? Who knew warriors could cook like that?"

"I have to say, they can make a very good meal."

"Oh, please. All you did was eat sticks and berries again."

Aang only laughed. "Someday you'll learn the value of a vegetarian diet, Toph. It's actually healthier than….."

"Stop right there. Maybe. _Maybe_ it is healthier. But I'll tell you right now, it can't taste very good. Because sticks and grass are still just sticks and grass."

"You do realize there isn't going to be a lot of meat to eat when we get to Sky Island," Aang told her.

"Of course. That's why I ate my fill before we left," she grinned. "Besides, I'm sure I can catch some fish. And there is always Appa."

The huge bison growled ominously at that.

"I meant you could fly me to a town, goof," she said, swatting at his side beyond the saddle playfully.

The animal only snorted, and shook himself, making Azula gasp at the tremors that shook the saddle.

"Behave," Aang quipped, but just then, the fallen princess wasn't sure who he was chiding as he sailed carefree beyond them on that seemingly fragile stick he favored.

She had never quite understood how he could turn a child's toy into such a formidable weapon, or manage to use it to fly so easily. She realized such things were simply beyond her, and she had to wonder if that was not part of why her great grandfather had completely destroyed the airbenders. Not only because they had been hiding the next avatar, but because they were capable of such things that others would never master, being earthbound as they were. Had it all been because of.….envy?

Azula sighed, and watched as pulled out a few wrapped provisions she handed over with a grin. "I'm not as bad as he likes to pretend. Unless I'm really hungry," she grinned impishly.

Azula said nothing to that as her own thoughts filled her head.

"Can I ask you something," she finally asked the girl.

"Sure. Doesn't mean I can answer. Or will. But you can ask," she teased.

Azula, used to immediate deference until her world had shattered, only sighed, and nodded. "Well, I know Mai married Zuko. Firelord Zuko."

"Wow, that's a mouthful, isn't it?"

"Uh, yes."

"So, you asking what to get them for an anniversary present, or what?"

She shook her head at the girl's careless manner. Sometimes it was very hard to imagine this child was from one of the most prestigious Earth Kingdom families in the world. Very hard.

"I just wondered…. Well, what happened to Ty Lee? Do you remember her? I was wondering…."

"Remember her? How do you forget the goof that could put you on your butt with a few pinches," Toph scoffed. "Anyway, yeah. We know. She joined the Kyoshi Warriors. They're still adapting her chakra control methods to their own skills. That's gonna make those girls _really_ something by the time they all master that one."

"Oh," Azula nodded, not sure why she imagined her friend might still be in prison, or something. Of course she was free. Like Mai. Like everyone else, it seemed. And like everyone else, she had turned her back on her. Never even tried to visit. Never….

"You okay?"

Azula, her mood darkened again, simply shrugged.

"What? Did you expect her to come see you? Face it, your highness. You pretty much stabbed her in the back. Not many people are going to forget that very quickly. Besides, like I said, she's been pretty busy with the Kyoshi Warriors. Knowing that screwy girl, she's so preoccupied she hasn't noticed anything else."

"She does get obsessed, doesn't she," Aang grinned, proving he had gotten to know her, too, and that he was still listening.

Then he looped high, and landed easily atop Appa as he folded his kite-staff. "We should be getting close to Waddle Reef. We'll camp there tonight, and reach Sky Island sometime tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me. You going to let me teach you metal bending yet," Toph asked mischievously.

"Call me old-fashioned," Aang grinned as he moved to take Appa's reins again. "But I'll stick with the four elements. I'm still mastering those, and I don't think I should add to them just now."

Now Azula did frown. "Are you saying you haven't even mastered the elements yet?"

"Are you kidding? I'm still afraid of fire, and earthbending is a lot tougher than Toph makes it look. Still, I have mastered water bending after all that practice with Katara….."

"That's not all you two have been practicing lately," Toph sniggered.

Aang shot a scowl her way, but the young girl only laughed. "I'm blind, not deaf. Or stupid."

"Remind me to leave you behind next time."

Toph only laughed again.

"Yet you beat my father without knowing…..?"

"I knew firebending. I just had not mastered it," Aang told her more soberly. "But I did master energybending."

"That I know," she sighed.

"So, twinkle-toes. I was meaning to ask you. Is it really gone for good, then? I mean Ozai's power?"

"And yours," he asked quietly. "From what I learned? Yes. Yes, it's gone," he told her. I'm not saying there isn't a way to reverse it, but just now, I don't know it. Still, practically speaking," the young monk replied as he glanced back at them, and Azula particularly. "If there is a way to do something, then it stands to reason that there is a way to _undo_ it."

"Way to get all mystical on us," Toph groaned. "Why not just say you don't know, and be done with it?"

"I thought I just said that?"

"In ten words or less next time," she demanded as she bit into a chunk of bread she had pulled out for herself by then.

"You better save some for breakfast. That's all we have until we get to the island."

"You used to pack more than this," the young earthbender complained.

"We used to be on the run in the heart of an enemy nation," Aang reminded her. "These days things are a lot more friendly."

"Riiiiiight. That's why last month we were running for our lives after those islanders decided you were an evil spirit come to sink their homeland."

"That was a misunderstanding," he sputtered.

"Uh-huh. And dropping a tidal wave on their temple really helped solve that one, didn't it?"

"You're the one that set it on fire."

"Yeah? And who asked me to try to plug that volcanic vent in the first place? I told you it wouldn't work. Volcanoes are not wine bottles. You can't just cork them. That kind of pressure is going to pop out somehwere."

"Toph," the young Avatar groaned.

"You think someone with all those past lives to fill in the blanks would know better," she sniggered.

Aang grumbled, but said nothing to that one.

"I suppose…..we all still have things to learn," Azula remarked as she ate more delicately now that the pangs of hunger had been satisfied the day before.

"Goes without saying," Toph drawled. "Me, though? I know all I need to know," she said before belching loudly.

Aang's sidelong glance was telling. She, however, did not see it.

Azula found herself suddenly smiling, even if she didn't fully understand these two. Or anyone else for that matter.

"There's the corral reefs," Aang suddenly called, and aimed Appa at the ocean where Azula could see nothing but a very small mound of porous rock.

"You're kidding," she sputtered as Appa slowed and began to land.

"Trust me," Aang assured her, and made a gesture just before they landed.

"It's a spirit thing," Toph drawled as the very air wavered and shimmered around them, and suddenly they were landing not on a small, fragile mound of corral, but a huge, lush green island.

"Don't worry," Aang told her. "There's nothing here that will hurt you," he reassured her as he jumped down from Appa and walked over to stand before the trees.

He bowed low, and chanted something just under his breath before he turned back to them, and declared, "Okay. Let's make camp."

Azula found she had absolutely nothing to say after seeing an entire island appear before her.

"You get used to this around him. He's forever disappearing, or going off into the spirit world, or some crazy nonsense like that," Toph declared as she jumped down and ran her feet through the sand to reach the harder ground beneath. "Me, I'll stick with good, hard earth under my feet."

Aang only smiled. "I'll refill the water," he told them, and jumped up to grab the canteens. "Azula? Want to take Appa's saddle off? He probably wants to stretch."

"Sure," she murmured, and turned to face the big animal that stared at her with those deceptively placid eyes. "Uhm….. How?"

Toph literally rolled on the beach, laughing.

"You really are helpless, aren't you," she finally spat out through her giggling.

"Just pull the straps loose, Azula," Aang sighed. "On the right side."

"I can do that," she nodded determinedly as Aang walked into the forest with the two nearly empty canteens.

*****

"I'm just saying," Toph told her as they finished off the provisions in their pack for their evening meal as Aang sat quietly watching the tide on the beach. "You always empty the saddle first. It's common sense. You're just lucky you're so spry. Even Sokka ended up with more than a few bruises at times when he wasn't careful."

Toph didn't add that he got quite a few even when he was careful at times.

Azula sat listening quietly, uncharacteristically silent as she absorbed the fact she was finally free of that hated prison cell, but in the care of an avatar she had spent over a year trying to kill.

"Now, Aang. He's graceful even when he's slipping up, which is one reason I call him twinkle-toes. That, and I just like to razz him now and then so he remembers not to get too big a head. After all, I still remember how I had to trick him into finally mastering a few earthbending moves."

"Jeez, Toph, I wasn't that bad."

"Twinkle-toes, you couldn't bend your way out of a landslide when I met you. You were terrible! But I have to admit, you've really improved, and even without your Avatar state, you're pretty good now. Not great, but pretty good. A few more lessons, and some more practice, and you'll be an earthbending master before long."

"Gee, thanks," the young man sighed, staring out at the waves.

"Uh…. Are you….okay," Azula asked, realizing Aang wasn't quite as sociable as he was earlier as he sat there looking more than a little moody now.

"Oh, he's just mooning over Katara again. He does that a lot when she's gone."

"Toph!"

"What? You want me to lie to her? I would, but why bother? She'd figure it out herself if she's around you long enough. I mean, gee, you two are just so obvious these days."

Aang sighed, and redirected his gaze back to the ocean.

*****

Having had about all of Toph's humor and company she could stand for a while, and headed into the lush jungle for a moment of peace.

Aang simply glanced back when she walked off, saying nothing.

She sighed as the moon hung over the broken canopy of the jungle, giving the moonlit island world around her a curious blue tint filled with shadows. She wandered aimlessly and idly for a time, wanting only to be away, and to seek her own path for a time.

So much still roiled in her mind, and she wasn't sure what to expect, or what to do.

One moment she had been Princess Azula. Soon to be Firelord Azula. Then her world was turned on its head, and the weakest, most pathetic creatures in the world, (In her mind), had destroyed her future, and turned her into a weak, pathetic creature as they rose in stature and prominence in her absence. Her absence spent in an overheated, tiny box of metal walls that seemed to grow smaller and smaller each day as her own mind tormented her with nightmares that became all too real over time.

She paused at one point, looking around, and feeling almost as lost as she did within her own mind.

Sighing, she turned to look for the direction back to the beach, and realized she wasn't sure which direction she had come. She frowned. The island wasn't that big. It couldn't be that hard to find…..

She gasped as she heard someone crying, and realized it sounded like a young girl. She started to turn away, but curiosity compelled her to move in that direction. She moved slowly, all the same. Cautiously. She eventually came to a small clearing, and saw a small, dark-haired girl in a nightgown huddled by herself as she sniffed, and tried to be silent though her weeping still carried. She started to turn away, feeling it wasn't her concern when the girl looked up from behind her arms she rested on her knees to support her bowed head. All she saw were dark eyes brimming with tears.

"Uh…. Uhm…. Little girl? Are you…..?"

"My mommy hates me," the girl whimpered as she looked up, her pale, oval face lit by the moon.

Azula gasped, staring into the very image of herself as a child.

"She thinks…..I'm a _monster_," the child wailed as Azula cried in horror herself, and turned and bolted blindly back into the forest.

"No, no, no," she cried as she forced herself to stop. It was a dream. A vision. Some trick of the mind. This was, after all, the Avatar's spirit place he had called up. There was no telling what kind of strange tricks this place could play on your mind.

Still, she wasn't a child any longer.

She wasn't a victim. She was the master of her own fate. She was….

Back at the clearing.

She blinked, staring at the young girl not ten who toiled relentlessly under her father's cold, disproving stare as he alternately praised, or chided her. Sparingly in former, and quite liberally in the latter. But she absorbed that faint praise like the desert sponged up the rare rains. She toiled on with a growing smirk, happy that she had found herself a niche in one of her parent's lives as she proved she was not only good at something, she was better than stupid Zu-Zu her stupid mother like better than her.

Azula stared at that young girl focused almost manically on perfecting her form as she noted the exact moment when she had decided that if she was to be a monster, she would be the very best monster the world had ever seen. The very best.

She swallowed hard, and looked down, closing her eyes for a moment as she felt an atypical surge of grief for that child she had been.

And what she had lost.

"Stupid island," she sniffed, wiping away tears as she looked up again, already guessing what was happening here. Her suspicions were confirmed when she looked up, and she saw Zuko glaring up at her as he knelt in front of her, his tunic torn, his knees scraped and bloody.

"You did that on purpose," he accused shrilly.

"Of course I did," she sneered, "But what are you going to do about it? Tell mother?"

Zuko looked murderous for a full half second before his face crumpled.

This had been a single day after their mother had been exiled.

"Oh, that's right. She's not here any more. You got her exiled. Probably killed, in spite of what father told you. After all, he knows how weak you are, Zu. Why, I doubt you'll ever be worth anything to father. You're such a timid, useless little….."

"I am not," the boy screeched, and ran off looking furious and ready to wail both at once.

She stared at him looking smug. Only after he was gone did her sneer fade, and her dark head drop as a moment's grief swept over her. One that she quickly pushed aside as if it were nothing. Something she became very good at over the years. So good that she denied her own heart until the day…..

"You can't beat me," the broken, scorched, and yet sodden creature howled madly at a shadowy figure standing to one side before it turned away. "You peasant! You vile, useless child! I'm the best! Me! _Me_!"

She watched her bound shade writhe in vain in her own madness as her head dropped again, and she relived that most humiliating moment as her enemy not only beat her, but turned her back on her. On her. Just like Mai. Just like Ty Lee. Like…..everyone always had.

She dropped to her knees, tears brimming in her eyes as she realized what she only then acknowledged.

Her mother had walked away without a world. Turning her back on her. That last night she had not only left Zuko behind, she had looked on her, and turned her back without a word. She had not even hugged her before she was carried away. She just….left.

"M-Mother," she murmured through trembling lips.

Then savagely shook her head.

She wasn't weak. She wasn't. She was…..

She looked up.

A cold-eyed shade stood over her, looking down with cold, hard eyes the color of gleaming amber backlit by flame stared down at her.

It wasn't her mother.

It was…..

"I hate you," she surprised herself as she stared up into the image she carried of herself for so long. The monster. The destroyer. The thing had made people hate and fear you.

The shadow's lips quirked, and parted. And laughed.

"Silly child. Did you think we were truly beaten? We are a part of you. We always were. We always will be. Now get on your feet, and prepare for our inevitable victory."

"What? No! It's over. Everything is over."

The shade scoffed. "Use your brain, child," it mocked her. "He trusts you now. He isn't looking for your treachery. Wait until he's off-guard, and you may yet avenge us, and your father. You can strike him down before he even realizes….."

"_No_," she screamed, and turned away.

Only to find the shadow already standing in the direction she turned.

"Stay away from me. I'm finished. I'm through. I'm not going back to…..to that. Never! Do you hear me," she cried. "Never."

"Weak, useless thing," the shadow sneered. "How could we have ever favored you."

"Leave me……alone," she choked, spinning around, and trying to run only to find the shadow was not only already there, it was all around her. Surrounding her. Moving to overwhelm and swallow her.

"Nooooooooo," she wailed as an icy cold began to tear at her even as a sudden, blue burst of light exploded in the heart of the clearing, and the shadows dispelled with it as a curious warmth filled her just when she felt she had been about to be torn apart by her own apparently very real demons.

"Lady," a soft voice called out of the light, and she looked up from her knees where she had dropped to see the gangly, yet muscular young teenager standing over her.

Offering a hand.

"Ready to go back," he asked quietly, solemnly as he offered her his hand even as he seemed to glow with light.

"B-B-Back?"

"You're in the spirit world, Lady Azula," he told her. "Somehow, you crossed over by yourself while you slept. It's a dangerous undertaking for the uninitiated. You're lucky I noticed where you had gone."

"S-Spirit world," she gasped. "Those things…..were…..real?"

"Spirits are all around us. We ourselves are just spirits occupying temporary bodies. So of course they're real," Aang smiled. "The trick is to not play by their rules. Let's go. It's almost time to get up anyway. It's almost dawn."

She looked up, took his hand, and suddenly found herself blinking as she realized she was lying on her back on the beach, looking up at the rising sun on the watery horizon as Appa growled at her from a few feet away.

To her right, Toph lay with one arm slung over her face. The other cast off to one side. She snored like a drunken soldier, and showed no feminine grace at all as she lay sprawled as if she had just carelessly fallen back on the sand.

Which she likely had she mused with a faint, but genuine smile.

"Good morning," Aang said quietly from where he sat cross-legged in a lotus posture as if he had still been meditating. He spoke without looking back at her, but was aware of her all the same. "Are you all right this morning?"

"I…. I am, thank you," she said quietly as she stretched, climbed to her feet, and looked toward the forest. "I should….thank you. For finding me."

"Hey," he smiled, rising gracefully to his feet as if he had been up for hours. "I remember how unsettling my first trip to the spirit world was at the time. It just takes getting used to before you go too far."

"You make it sound like I'll be going back?"

The young man smiled up at her with a knowing smirk.

"No. Absolutely not," she shook her head.

"Lady Azula, it seems to me that if you found your way into the spirit world so easily that someone, or something is calling you. That you have a destiny all your own that you should be trying to find. One that others don't set for you."

"That….. That other me wanted….."

"Forget the demon. They're everywhere. You learn to ignore them. Something called you, though," he told her as Toph yawned and sat up. "That you heard the call, and went to the spirit world so easily tells me you have a purpose, or a mission that you've yet to figure out is waiting."

"She went into the spirit world," Toph complained the moment she spoke. "Maaaaaan, what is it with you guys. Everyone is always having fun, and leaving me behind. What's up with that?"

"I can't imagine," Azula remarked dryly, making Aang chuckle.

"Come on. Let's get ready. Sky Island isn't too far away now. We'll be there by midday."

"Uh, how do you…..?"

She gestured at the saddle. She was pretty sure that there was no way she was going to be able to get that heavy thing back up on the bison's back.

"No problem," Aang smiled, and gave a sudden, fluid gesture that had air rising up under the saddle where it had fallen, floating over, and settling down lightly on Appa's broad back.

"I think I'll let you tighten the straps, too," she decided as she went over to roll up their bedding. "I'd just as soon not fall off when we're over the ocean," she stated.

"Neither would I," Toph snorted. "Now, give. What's this about the spirit world? What's it like? Did you see anyone you know? Knew? What….?"

"You get used to her," Aang assured her as Azula just stared as the younger girl babbled on.

"How," she asked earnestly.

"Hey!" came the predictable protest.

Okay, everyone on board," Aang grinned as he finished loading Appa's saddle by simply airbending everything up and into place. Including himself.

"Next stop, Sky Island."

Azula stared up at that saddle, sighed, and climbed up to take her usual place where she could hand onto the side if necessary. Again.

_To Be Continued……_


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own these characters, or any rights to them, I am simply borrowing them to write a story for amusement purposes only._

**Avatar**

**By LJ58**

**Part 3: Sky Island.**

"I still don't understand," Azula frowned as she sat near the Avatar where he rode on the front of the saddle today, barely noticing Toph, who was not pleased at being excluded just then.

"Neither do I," the young earthbender complained. "Tell me again how it is she gets to go to the spirit world, and once again I was stuck doing….nothing?"

"It wasn't on purpose, I can tell you that," Azula grumbled as she pointedly did not look over the side of the flying bison's saddle.

"Sometimes, it doesn't have to be. When you are….in the right place. In the right….state of mind. And especially if your emotions are strong. Then you can enter the spirit world without realizing it. As you did. It can be dangerous for the uninitiated, though. I think you learned that last night."

"How dangerous," Toph asked.

"You don't want to know," Azula told her quietly, still unsettled over what she had seen and experienced. A part of her had genuinely considered treachery. Of avenging herself, and her father. A part of her still wanted to try.

But she was starting to realize that part was weak. Worse. It was useless. Useless, and vain. Besides, she would have no hope of defeating the Avatar as she was now. Treachery aside, she had the feeling he wasn't truly that careless. That he was far more capable than he appeared. After all, he did not beat her father at his prime by being a simpleton. He was probably watching her every second without her realizing it.

Then, too, a part of her was starting to actually like him. And she also found she liked being….liked. It was so unusual for her that she found being welcome by someone without fear or expectations was…..nice.

"Sure I do. It can't be that bad," Toph remarked naively just then, shattering her conflicted reasoning.

Azula eyed the blind girl and shook her head. "Trust me. You do not want to go. I wish I hadn't. It's…..not pleasant."

"It depends on what you seek. Or find," Aang told her. "You weren't ready, and you are still dragging a lot of personal _demons_ with you that don't help. I know someone that can help you with that, though."

"Not you?"

He smiled with complete humility, and shrugged. "I'm the first to admit that I'm still learning a lot of things myself," he admitted. "I may have finally mastered the Avatar State, but that was more an accident than not."

"Most everything usually is with you, twinkle-toes," Toph sniggered.

"Well, I can't deny it. Still, I have a friend visiting just now that should be able to help you," he assured Azula. "You just have to let him."

"I still don't get it. You're saying that just because she was upset, she just walked into the spirit world," Toph persisted.

"There's more to it than that," Aang assured her.

"Has to be," the younger brunette grunted. "Because I've been upset lots of times, and I never walked into the spirit world."

"Next time you can go in my place," Azula told her irritably, unable to believe the girl actually wanted that kind of experience.

"Promise," the blank eyes turned on her with utter seriousness.

"Yes, she's being serious," he nodded at the deposed princess as if reading her very thoughts. He still recalled Firelord Zuko's less than flattering description of their hunt for him that fateful day when his companion had been Toph. He had not been overly fond of the experience he shared with Toph.

"You have….strange friends," she told him dryly.

"They're still my friends," he shrugged carelessly.

"I still don't understand how you all stay friends if you insult one another, and don't….."

"What about your friends?"

"What friends," she asked irritably.

"I know Mai was worried about you. She was the one that asked your brother to contact me."

"She was? She did," she frowned, remembering only that Mai had betrayed her, and then left her in that prison. Even when she…..begged.

"She was. She was very concerned about you," he nodded. "I'm sure Ty Lee is, too."

"When she stops to think at all," Toph drawled, proving she did know the girl.

Still, Azula's expression was less than forgiving.

"You could write them if you like," he suggested. "Let them know how you're doing now."

"How I'm…..doing?"

"Well, I think the past few days prove you're already doing much better compared to the stories the warden shared with Lord Zuko."

"He knew about….. About my…..?"

She looked horrified.

Bad enough he saw her on the day that she all but literally fell apart. Saw her bested and broken by….._her_. Now it seemed that he also apparently known all about her near descent into madness.

No, she admitted grudgingly. There was nothing near about it.

"He must be gloating," she said somberly, looking out at something only she could see.

"He sent me to help you," he reminded her, giving her a look of sympathy.

She sighed heavily, still looking away from him, and the earthbender. "I still don't get it. What do you expect to get out of this? Out of me?"

"Your friendship," Aang offered, his earnest tone drawing her gaze once again.

"You're kidding?" "Nope," Toph grinned crookedly when she looked back at her when Aang only smiled at her. "He's always serious about that one."

"You actually think that you can…..help me….somehow? And that then we'll all just be….friends? Is that it?"

"The only thing stopping you, is you," Aang told her quietly.

"Haven't you ever had a friend that was just…..a friend?"

She looked back at Toph, scowled, and snapped, "_No_! Someone _always_ wants something. Or they're just pandering to you. Or fearful of you. People just don't….."

"We doooo," Toph said in a singsong tone.

"Then you are as strange as I surmised," she grumbled.

"Guilty as charged," Aang agreed. "So, now that we've settled we're not afraid of you, or trying to exploit you, will you calm down again?"

"I. Am. Calm," she hissed.

"Then why are you standing up while we're still in the air?"

She stared down at the sitting boy, glanced around, and made a faint squeak as she dropped quickly to her knees, grabbing the horn of the saddle.

Toph couldn't help but snigger.

"Don't worry. We're almost there," Aang assured the now pale, almost white-faced young woman.

"One thing for sure," Toph drawled from behind her. "She may not have her firebending, but she still has her _fire_," she chortled.

"How clever," Azula muttered sourly, but Aang nodded and smiled at her, too.

"She's right. You've still got your spirit, and that will help you as much as anything we can do for you, Lady Azula."

"Look. Just…. Just call me Azula? All right? We both know….."

"I'd be honored," Aang cut her off, nodding toward her in a respectful manner. "But you must call me Aang."

She sighed, and looked at him again. "Fine."

She eyed him rather than look out at the ocean again as they continued to fly in relative silence for a time, and then finally drew a deep breath, and cleared her throat.

"May I ask you a question? Uhm, Aang?"

"Sure," he nodded, not hesitating as he looked back at her without care from his own perch.

"I….heard some stories….earlier. I've heard some rumors, actually. Is it true you were actually trapped in ice for over a hundred years?"

He sighed.

"Yeeeaaahhhhh," he grumbled now, looking a little embarrassed. "Not my finest moment. Of course, I suppose I ended up just where and when I was supposed to be, so I can't really complain."

"Indeed," the brunette murmured, and sighed as she looked away again.

"You should hear how Sokka tells it," Toph grinned. "Finding him, I mean. He's hilarious!"

Toph glanced over at Aang, who was scowling now.

"Well, he is," the girl who was blind, but surprisingly sensitive to those around her stated smugly. She just apparently chose not to show it that often.

Azula had to smile at the byplay, too. For a moment, she remembered simpler times with Mai and Ty Lee, and the teasing they had shared. Her smile faded as she remembered again how that ended. How they had ended.

She sat in a silence a long time as those somber thoughts filled her mind.

She was so lost she almost didn't hear Aang when he called out.

"What," she frowned.

"We're here," he told her, pointing.

She turned in the direction he indicated, and stared.

Sky Island.

The towering cliffs obviously gave the place its name. There were no beaches. No way on or off the tall, rocky plateau that jutted up out of the water. Unless you were flying.

Or were a very good climber.

It was, she realized, a literal fortress surrounded by ocean. Aang was not as foolish as she had first thought.

"Aang! Welcome back, my friend," a seemingly emaciated old man with a wild, scruffy beard that seemed to explode from his weathered visage smiled as they landed. "I understand you brought me my next pupil! I'm quite excited," the man beamed from behind his whiskers. "I even made up extra onion and banana juice to celebrate!"

"Uh, thanks," Aang smiled tightly as he heard that last even as Toph dropped down to land on the ground, digging her toes into the soft earth near the walls still being raised as a new Air Nomad Temple was being raised.

"You boys can have all the juice you want," Toph declared as Azula dropped down to land on the ground, and looked more than happy to just be on solid earth again. "I'll stick with my own diet, thank you."

"But it's a wondrous cure for the digestion," the old man assured the earth-bender.

"Well, in that case, you'd better save some for Aang. I think he probably needs it more with all those twigs and leaves he insists on eating," she declared, and strolled off toward the unfinished temple. "Later," she said, waggling her fingers over her shoulder as she headed for the work crew that stopped to stare at their arrival.

"What does he mean…. pupil," Azula asked as the old man eyed her with a peculiar gleam in his eyes as he now fixed his overly intense gaze on her. A gaze that had her feeling beyond uneasy as the old man just grinned at her.

"Well, like I said, Guru Pathik is probably the one person in the world that can best help you," Aang told her. "He was instrumental in helping me, too…."

"Even though you didn't listen, and almost got yourself killed by ignoring me," the guru reminded him not for the first time. It was a rib that he seemed to enjoy reminding the Avatar about every chance he got of late.

"Well, things still worked out," Aang put out.

"True. True. Because the nature of the Universe is to seek balance in spite of ourselves. In the end, you did not so much find your destiny, as it found you. Now, I see another lost pone has come here in need of finding her own harmony," he went on, and returned his gaze to Azula. "If you will trust me," he smiled, "I can show you how to find your own way again. Drink," he asked, and thrust out a gourd she realized was the origin of that peculiar aroma she had been smelling.

"Uh…."

"Onion and banana juice," he beamed. "Trust me. It's not only good for the digestion, it helps open the gateways that allow your chakra to flow, realigning the seven gates, and returning to your to harmony with the Cosmos. Now, drink," he insisted, and almost pushed the gourd to her lips.

She took a cautious sip, and immediately choked.

"I'll just go check with the construction crew, and see how they're going," Aang declared, and rushed off shouting, "Later, Azula!"

The deposed princess stood there with watery eyes, trying not to gag on that horrid concoction, and almost wept when the old man told her, "Don't worry. You get used to it after a while."

_To Be Continued….._


	4. Chapter 4

_I do not own these characters, or any rights to them, I am simply borrowing them to write a story for amusement purposes only._

**Avatar**

**By LJ58**

**Part 4: **

"There are seven gates you must open. Seven paths that must flow as one. Otherwise, your mind and body both suffer. In you, I see that the mind is already fragmented. You are confused. Tormented. You are fighting with yourself, because you do not understand yourself."

Azula just stared at the mostly bald old man with the untamed beard as they sat in a grassy meadow on the far side of the island away from the temple that, so far as she could tell, was being raised more as memorial than not, since Aang still remained the only air-bender left alive.

"So, you're saying I'm crazy, too," she demanded bitterly.

Pithak chortled, and only reached out and swatted the top of her head.

"Actually, you're in much the same condition as Aang when he first came to me. That boy was so confused, he wasn't sure what he wanted. Or didn't want. The difference is, you have let the fragments of your divided mind take on life of their own. You saw one of those fragments in the spirit world."

"The demon?"

"Demons are just pieces of your soul that lose their way when you let them wander. Bring them back, and regain your harmony, and the demons fade, and lend you the strength and wisdom of their essence."

Azula recalled what that sliver wanted.

"And if you don't want their guidance," she asked grimly as she sat cross-legged, trying to be patient with the strange old man.

After all, just now, it wasn't like she had a choice.

The guru smiled again.

"Every soul has dark and light in it. The choices the mind makes amplifies those characteristics. If, however, you are out of balance, as you are, those choices can lead to disaster, because you are not truly even understanding that the choice you make isn't."

"Huh?"

"You'll figure it out," he assured her. "We all do, if we are patient enough."

"Now, the first chakra. Earth. It is blocked by fear, and you, my child, are filled with fear."

"I have never been afraid of…..!"

"Oh, yes," the man smiled, his gaze tearing into her as if he could suddenly see right through her. "Drink," he demanded, and shoved his gourd at her again.

She choked down the bitter fluid, and handed the gourd back. Better, she realized, to cooperate than have him annoying her all day.

"Now, open your mind, princess. Focus on your own demons, and then tell me you are not afraid," he said almost tauntingly.

She sighed, closed her eyes, and began to focus on her breathing as the guru had already taught her. She listened to the sounds around her. The wind. The birds. The near-distant splash of the waves far below the towering rocky plateau that formed this unlikely island.

She had a sense of movement around her, only she knew they were alone.

She knew the old man remained before her. She could still hear his own measured breathing.

So who…..?

She focused again, remembering the guru's lessons of distractions. Of being lost on the path to enlightenment. She sensed the movement again, but kept her eyes tightly closed.

Until they seemed to burst open of their own will.

To her horror, she found herself standing on the side of a courtyard as another Azula faced her brother.

"_Why Zu-Zu, I don't think you're looking too good_," the other her mocked as lightning split the air, and her brother used his own body to save the peasant she had been targeting.

Why, she had wondered even then. Why would he sacrifice himself for a mere peasant? A nobody?

She stared, watching as she grew more manic. As if the power of the comet had driven her mad that day. Only it wasn't the comet. She had already been lost in that madness that only manifested the very day, the very moment, she should have been most triumphant.

She saw herself defeated by a lesser opponent.

Now, watching with clear eyes, and a calmer mind, she saw that Katara had been the one in control. She was obviously frightened. Worried. Yet she had used her mind, and outfought her with an almost ridiculous ease.

Or so it seemed to her now.

Even as she watched herself flail and writhe, screaming in madness now as the water-bender tended her fallen sibling, she realized only then that not only had that madness already been on her, it had been born of fears. Fears denied, and repressed until they exploded at the moment of her apparent triumph.

Raised by her father to be the Fire Lord, she had occupied that office for less than an hour before deposed. Abandoned, or so it seemed to her then, by friends, companions, and even supposedly loyal servants, she was left standing alone as she faced the very world.

Or so it seemed.

And in that instant, all her fears coalesced, and crystallized in her mind. In that instant, she understood.

She did fear. Had feared. Always.

She feared being alone.

When her mother left her. Then her brother. Her friends. Even, it seemed, her father in the end. And she was left with absolutely…..nothing. Nothing at all. While the people she had long disdained seemed to have all the companions in the world flocking to them.

Hot tears drenched her cheeks as she blinked away the vision, and she found herself staring at the old man again.

"Now, you begin to understand," he smiled, and held out that gourd.

She smiled back, but couldn't help but groan as her belly churned in dismay.

**~A~**

It was late when Azula returned to the camp where the workers brought in to help raise the temple were sharing a thick, meaty stew with Toph, who had obviously contributed to the menu with her own stores brought from the mainland.

"That smells good," she said, and risked coming over to sit by the younger girl. "Mind if I join you."

The men all eyed her, but most shrugged, used to her presence by now.

"I don't know," Toph smiled knowingly. "Sure your guru will like you eating meat while he's doing his thing?"

Azula groaned.

"I'm kidding you. Have a bowl," she said, gesturing to the pot.

The princess wasted no time in filling a wooden bowl left near the pot, and gulping down two helpings.

"Ambrosia," she declared, finally feeling as her belly were not in hell.

"So, how's the lessons going?"

"Slowly," she sighed, trying to keep from thinking about some of the lessons learned of late. "And….humbling."

"That's what Aang said. He also said, in the end, you just have to be yourself. Uh, hopefully, your good and better self, considering, but in the end, yeah…. You still have to be yourself. Otherwise…."

She paused as Azula just frowned at her.

"I know I was making a point," the earth-bender assured her after pausing. "I'm just now sure what it was now."

"I think," Aang chuckled as he joined them just then, dropping off his glider as he seemed to appear out of nowhere to land near their fire. "You were trying to point out that it's one thing to find enlightenment. It's another to let it rule you."

"Okay, even I didn't understand that one," Azula admitted.

Aang laughed.

"That's okay, I don't understand half the things he says," Toph admitted.

"Look, when I first met Guru Pathik, he did open my eyes to a lot of things that had been….eluding me. Important things, too, and I'll be the first to admit that. Still, in the end, the price of becoming the Avatar everyone expected would have had me losing the very friends and life I wanted to protect. In the end, I turned away from that path, but in the end I still found a way to combine both by being true to myself. See?"

"He means he faked it," Toph winked at Azula. "Again."

Aang sighed as he just shook his head.

"Look. When I first appeared, let's face it, everyone had this….idea of the Avatar. What I was supposed to be, and do. I was supposed to be the embodiment of Justice. I can respect that. But they thought I was supposed to be above everyone and everything. They even wanted me to kill the Fire Lord in order to stop him. Only that wasn't the kind of Avatar I wanted to be….."

"I find myself grateful," Azula admitted, knowing if he had been, she, and her father would have been dead long ago.

"Right," the young teen smiled at her. "By finding my own way to fulfill my destiny, I not only saved lives, I give the world a better example."

"I think I understand what you're saying now," Azula murmured, setting her now empty bowl aside.

"Anything to help."

"So, tell me one thing. Do you really like that juice," she asked.

"Well, it's an acquired taste," he said tactfully. "But, it really does help….clear you out."

"I'll say," Toph chortled.

Which made the men around the fire laugh yet again.

**~A~**

"Can I ask you a question," Azula asked Pathik as they sat on a small, sandy outcropping they had reached by spending the morning climbing down the virtually sheer cliff.

An exercise in and of itself, or so the old man had told her.

She found it hard to doubt him. She literally had to focus on every move to the exclusion of all else, fighting her own fears as she faced a very fatal fall if she slipped even for an instant. There were no ropes. No support. If she lost her grip, she would simply fall.

Still, even the climb had not been so hard as facing, in turn, her fears. Her guild, shame, and even grief as she opened the paths in mind and body to allow her chakra to flow more naturally. She had even had to face the lies she had been telling herself all alone, and cope with the illusions she had built her life on, which only supported all those detrimental aspects of a life with no true value now that she looked at herself more objectively.

Now, she looking at the final lesson. The one Aang failed, yet still managed to surpass in the end. That of earthly attachment. The 'thought' chakra that fixated on those ambitions and desires that clouded true harmony with the greater world.

It was a lesson she still wasn't sure how to manage.

Aang had failed, and yet passed in the end. He readily admitted how, and it was a costly lesson.

Yet she wasn't the Avatar. Far from it. She wasn't even a princess any longer, no matter what Aang told her.

She really wasn't sure what she was, but she knew what she didn't want to be. At least, she did now.

So she focused, narrowing her mind on the lesson, and reached the sandy strip where she sat down and began to meditate with Guru Pathik once again as the waves lapped at her toes, and she stared out over the endless sea that surrounded the island.

Which was when the question came to mind.

Not out of nowhere, of course. It had been there all along. It had been a concern for months. Now, she had to ask yet again.

"You can always ask," the guru grinned crookedly at his pupil. "I might even be able to answer," he replied predictably.

"Will I….ever get my bending back? Is that possible?"

"Hmmmm. Anything is possible, of course. Probable? That's another question. Then again, I never thought Aang would survive after he fled the air temple without mastering the Avatar State. So, what do I know?"

"Aang said you sometimes saw the future," she murmured, her eyes closing as she tried not to fixate on the need she felt just then. Or the fear of what the answer might be.

Hopefully, she reminded herself, she had finally pushed beyond those lessons.

"I do sometimes see glimpses of the future. In your case, I can honestly say, I don't know. I do know, you will find your own way, and that is as important as being a fire-bender, isn't it?"

She sat listening to the waves for several minutes before she nodded.

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"Good. Now, focus," he told her, and again swatted her head as he often did.

This time, it seemed her knocked her flying, and suddenly she was standing in a place that wasn't where she had been.

She stared around her at the thick, lush jungle, and immediately knew what had happened.

"The spirit world," she murmured, and looked around for something to guide her.

"Well, aren't you the clever one," a perfectly dressed copy of herself sneered as she turned to see the princess she had been standing before her. She even wore the emblem of the Fire Lord upon her tunic, and the crown on her head.

She stared at the 'demon' she had birthed in her own mind, and wondered why she was here again.

Facing this….

Then she understood.

"We were wrong," she told the demon. The dark half of her that still wanted ambition. Power. To be untouchable. To command…..everyone. It was, she understood only in that moment, her solution to loneliness. By commanding everyone to worship her.

To….love her.

Only she…. She wasn't loveable.

She sighed, and shook her head.

"We were wrong," she said again.

"You think your self-deprecation will undo us? Will make you better? No one will ever trust you. No one will ever like you. Your only chance is to do as I have said. Strike, and strike now, while the Avatar is distracted. While he _trusts_ you!"

Azula just stared this time.

She felt the fear. The pain. The utter misery that roiled around her. Around them.

This time, she stood her ground.

"No," she said quietly.

"Then you'll die here," the other half of her sneered, and her hands rose, birthing lightning. "And I'll take our body, and do what you are too weak to do! I'll shatter this false piece, and…."

"No," Azula murmured again, forcing herself to remain calm as she walked forward.

"What…? What are you doing," the furious princess seethed, increasing the power that crackled around them in the air.

"I see it now. You already tried to take over. And you almost drove us mad. You're that part that was left over when Aang used his energy-bending to defeat us."

_"No!"_

"You're the ambition that still lurks in our heart. Demanding expression."

"You are a fool….!"

"But I understand," she murmured, and hugged the now trembling darkness that shrieked in her embrace as it sent lightning surging through them both.

She was jolted back, coughing as she tasted salt water, and splashed impotently as she realized the water was up to her neck, and still rising.

"It's about time," Pathik chortled down at her from where he somehow crouched on the rocky slope above her like a scrawny lizard. "I thought you were going to drown for a moment there."

"You could have helped," she sputtered, turning to scrabble up the cliff away from the rising tide.

"I could have," he admitted cheerfully, "But would you have learned anything?"

"I could have drowned."

"Yet you didn't," he reminded her.

"No thanks to you," she huffed.

The guru only chortled.

"Are you going to argue? Or climb?"

She looked up. And up, and up, and up.

"Don't forget to focus. I daresay you have a lot to think about on the way up, too. Don't you, Azula," he winked impenitently at her.

She forced her eyes down, groaned, and started to climb.

"I really wish I was an air nomad just now," she moaned.

"I hear Aang is looking for students," he teased.

"You're kidding? You do know I am…. Was a fire-bender."

"A bender is a bender. Only you're not, but that doesn't mean you won't be. Still, even if you aren't, it can't keep you from following other paths. See?"

"Toph is right. You're nuts."

"Yet here you are, following me," the guru beamed through his bushy beard. "What does that make you?"

"Completely insane," she declared earnestly. "Now, be quiet, and let me focus," she said, forcing herself higher on the slick rock.

Climbing up, she was fast realizing, was much harder than climbing down.

**~A~**

Aang came to her room later than night after the evening meal, and knocked quietly.

"Come in," she called, knowing it was him. No one else moved so quietly.

At least, no one on this island.

"Guru Pathik told me you visited the spirit world again."

"I saw _her_ again," she nodded as she sat up on her cot, and faced the young Avatar.

"Did you," he asked, standing before her with a faint smile.

He didn't press. Didn't question her. He simply waited. As if he were just visiting a friend with no more motivation than that.

She realized, with him, it might just be that simple.

"I…. I'm not sure what happened, but I…. I think I…..reconciled with….myself. At least, to a degree."

"Master Gyatso, the monk that raised me, often said that Life is a journey. One that never truly ends. So don't think about destinations, so much as the experiences and friends that cross your path. That is what truly is important."

She nodded as she sat on the edge of her cot, still wearing the simple dress as she had yet to prepare for bed as she lay there thinking over everything she had experienced of late.

"He sounds….wise."

"He was," Aang nodded. "Someday, I hope to be at least as half as smart."

"I think you're already close," she admitted.

"Thanks. Even Katara thinks I have a lot to learn, though. Actually, so do I," he smiled in a bemused fashion.

"So….? Did you just come to check on me, or….?"

"Actually, I thought you'd like to visit home. Lord Zuko has given you permission, if you would like to visit."

She stared hard at him.

"He…wants to see me?"

"I did say he was worried about you. So is Mai. They would both like to see you. Espeically now that you're doing so much better."

"I don't know," she sighed, turning away now as darker memories rose.

"Azula," he murmured, stepping forward to put a hand on her shoulder. "Who you were isn't who you are. And who you are isn't who you might yet be. Don't condemn yourself when no one else is. Remember what Guru Pathik taught you. Remember what you learned."

She smiled.

"Not going to ask about my last lesson?"

"I don't have to," he told her. "I can see the change in you. So, would you like to visit?"

"Yes," she agreed. "Very much. But….what about after? I mean, now that I'm better, am I….going back to jail?"

"I don't know. I do know you can remain here as long as you wish. Your fate, however, is up to you, and Fire Lord Zuko. I do know he hasn't said anything about you going back to prison so long as you are in my care. That hasn't changed."

"Thank you, Aang," she told him. Then grimaced. "I guess we'll be flying again?"

"Of course," he grinned.

"Of course," she grimaced again.

**~A~**

"Toph isn't coming this time," she asked, noting the young earth-bender was still off with the work crews.

"She's staying to help finish the temple before the rains start. That, and I think she likes showing off," he laughed as they both knew she had been carving up and raising stone faster and easier than his work crew.

There had also been some spirited arguments over design and structure with the foreman and the willful girl, too, since her arrival.

"I've noticed," Azula had to smile as she forced herself to climb into the saddle as Appa simply eyed her with a faint grunt this time, not even snorting at her.

Azula noted the difference almost at once as they left the island, and began the long flight toward the Fire Nation.

She herself was more relaxed. They spent more time in simple, yet companionable silence. When they did stop at towns, no one cursed her, or glared. They seemed to accept her as just another woman in the Avatar's presence. Most, she realized, likely didn't even realize who she was as she had so obviously changed from just a few months ago.

She even found herself enjoying the flight as she stared out at the world beyond Appa's back, and took a solace in their quiet nights when they camped in the middle of forests, meadows, or wherever they happened to land.

Then, like a long, pleasant dream, the idyll abruptly ended when she saw the first glimpse of the now repaired palace as they neared her former home.

She grew tense, but Aang's warm smile helped reassure her as they landed behind the palace, and then led her not to the palace, but to a garden where she had spent much of her youth at times.

She found herself smiling as she remembered almost forgotten memories now, and then heard someone call her name.

Aang said nothing as he stepped back, and she turned to stare at the only other person in the garden.

She gasped aloud, genuinely stunned as the finely dressed woman with mostly graying black hair stood up from the bench where she had been reading, and looked her way with a soft simple.

"Hello, Azula," Ursa greeted her. "Welcome home, daughter."

"M-Mother?"

She wanted to step forward. To do something. Say something. Yet just then, even thought was lost as she simply stared at the woman that had long been in the back of her mind.

Ursa moved forward after a moment, and gently put her arms around her.

"It is all right, 'Zula. You're home, and you're safe now. That's all that matters."

"I….I thought you hated me," the young teen choked as she looked helplessly through her own tears at the graying brunette that only smiled down at her. "I….I heard you call me….a _monster_."

"Azula," Ursa told her in a soft tone as she hugged her in a warm embrace that shocked the young woman. "I never liked what your father _made_ of you, but I always loved _you_. That never changed," she told her, and the younger woman looked up at her in confusion. "You are my child. No mother ever truly hates their own child, even when they disappoint them."

Azula gave a cry of raw emotion, and hugged her mother in a fierce embrace.

Behind them, Zuko and Mai entered the garden, and just watched them.

"Welcome home," the Fire Lord told her when Azula finally turned, and held out his arms. She blindly staggered toward him, hugging her brother as their mother, and her best friends watched.

It was, she realized as their reunion continued with tears and laughter, the very thing she had wanted for years.

She never even noticed when Aang slipped away.

_End _


End file.
